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Family Business
' |image= |series= |production=40513-469 |producer(s)= |story= |script= Ira Steven Behr and Robert Hewitt Wolfe |director=Rene Auberjonois |imdbref=tt0708537 |guests=Jeffrey Combs as Brunt, Andrea Martin as Ishka, Max Grodénchik as Rom and Penny Johnson as Kasidy Yates |previous_production= Explorers |next_production=Shakaar |episode=DS9 S03E023 |airdate= 15 May 1995 |previous_release=(DS9) Explorers (Overall) Jetrel |next_release=(DS9) Shakaar (Overall) Learning Curve |story_date(s)=Unknown (2371) |previous_story=(DS9) Explorers (Overall) Jetrel |next_story=(DS9) Shakaar (Overall) Learning Curve }} =Summary= In Quark's, an agent named Brunt from the Ferengi Commerce Authority (FCA) — their version of the IRS — serves Quark with a Writ of Accountability for improper supervision of a family member. Quark and Rom's mother, Ishka, is charged with earning a profit — an illegal activity for Ferengi women. As the family's eldest male, Quark is held responsible. He and Rom return to their homeworld, Ferenginar, where Quark must convince Ishka to confess, as required by Ferengi law. The brothers arrive at their childhood home with Brunt, but Quark is not comfortable with seeing his mother again. They are surprised to find Ishka wearing clothes, which is also illegal for Ferengi women. Brunt tells Quark he has three days to get his mother to sign a confession, then leaves. Later, Ishka confirms over dinner that she broke Ferengi law by investing a portion of her monthly stipend from Quark, earning a meager three bars of latinum in the process. Still, she refuses to confess, which angers her oldest son. In her room, Ishka reveals to Rom that she will not admit to being wrong — this is a matter of pride, and proof that she is just as capable of earning profit as a man. But Quark discovers that Ishka has actually been conducting business transactions under dozens of aliases all over the Ferengi Alliance, making much more than just three bars of latinum. Even if Quark sells everything he owns, he will be unable to pay back what his mother has earned. Quite simply, he's ruined. Quark confronts Ishka, who accuses him of being jealous of her financial acumen — just like his deceased father. With that, an infuriated Quark decides to turn in Ishka to the FCA. Rom tries to stop him, but the conversation deteriorates into a brawl, after which Ishka declares that if Quark insists on reporting her secret transactions, then she won't stand in his way. In the Tower of Commerce, Quark waits outside Brunt's office when Rom suddenly rushes in with the news that Ishka will split her profits with Quark, fifty-fifty. Seeing the entire affair in a different light, Quark hurries home to accept Ishka's offer. But when he arrives, Quark learns Rom made up the story, lying to both of them to force a conversation between the two. Alone with Quark Ishka tells him that, since he is her son, she will sign the confession and give back the money. Later, she pays her reparations to Brunt, and a relieved Quark says his good-byes and leaves. Now alone with Rom, Ishka reveals that she outsmarted Quark and the Ferengi government yet again — by giving up only a third of her profits. =Errors and Explanations= Plot Oversights # First, Quark decides to go back to the Ferengi home world. Then Rom decides to go back to the Ferengi home world. I wonder: Who's taking care of Nog? Or is he just going to fend for himself? (At least he can get in some good study time while the bar is closed. You might recall that he's preparing for the Starfleet Academy entrance exams.) Maybe Nog is considered old enough to look after himself! Changed Premises # It's interesting that Quark is so appalled at a Ferengi female acquiring profit in this episode since he protected Pel—a Ferengi female posing as a male—-at the end of "Rules of Acquisition" and he even gave her a stake of ten bars of gold-pressed latinum. (Of course, Ishka is his mother, and that may have a lot to do with it!) Pel carried out her activities disguised as a male, while Ishka conducted at least some of hers using her real name. Equipment Oddities # Here's a new one for you: Sisko gets to name his runabouts! Near the beginning of the episode Kira tells him the new runabout is available for inspection, and he tells her he wants to name it the Rubicon. This is the first time this has ever happened. Since the runabouts belong to Starfleet, Starfleet Command usually reserves this privilege for themselves. Perhaps he has a special dispensation. # This episode clinched the fact that O'Brien has solved the antigrav problem on the station. In Melora Bashir said that standard antigrav units wouldn't work on DS9, and that's why he had to replicate an old-style wheelchair. In this episode Captain Yates tells one of her men to fetch an antigrav sled. Maybe the Melora incident prompted an upgrade to allow antigravs to work on the station. Nit Central # Keith Alan Morgan on Saturday, May 08, 1999 - 8:18 am: Rom holds up a latinum tooth sharpener, but in Who Mourns for Morn? latinum is a liquid at room temperature. As stated elsewhere, the latinum may be bonded to another substance. # Why does O'Brien need to break into the bar? Since Nog is apparently on the station, ask him for a key. If Nog doesn't have one, then he must know where one would be kept. Do you really expect Quark to trust his ‘I want to defy Ferengi tradition by joining Starfleet’ nephew with the key!? # Rom says of his father, "He couldn't hold onto latinum if you sewed it into his pants." I should think not, as a liquid it would just leak out. Not if the pants had liquid proof compartments in the lining! # Ishka helped Quark learn the Rules of Acquisition, but I thought females were not permitted to know the Rules of Acquisition? Quark’s father probably wasn't around enough to do it. # If no one has played Baseball in 200 years, then why is Sisko such a fan of the game? Maybe because of it’s part in establishing equal rights for African Americans. # All the FCA knew about was the 3 strips of gold-pressed latinum, but at the end it is revealed that Ishka has given up one third of her profits. So did Quark tell the FCA about the extra profit, did the FCA find out about the extra profit or is Ishka's entire fortune 9 strips of gold-pressed latinum? (And to think Quark was worried about paying off 9 strips.) Perhaps the 9 strips is all that was earned under Ishka’s real name? # Admiral of the Fleet on Sunday, July 29, 2001 - 2:11 pm: Were the Ferengi ever part of those massive Alpha Quadrant fleets that fought the Dominion? I don't seem to recall them being so. You'd think they would though as the Dominion are, in Quark's judgement, "bad for business". After all, two of the greatest mercantile nations ever, England and Holland, frequently went to war to defend or expand their commercial interests, which often went hand-in-hand with that concept called freedom. But I guess the writers couldn't let the Ferengi Alliance do that.LUIGI NOVI on Monday, July 30, 2001 - 2:20 pm: No, the Ferengi didn’t enter the battle, but I did think it’d be kinda cool if, during a particularly precarious moment of the battle, when say the Defiant, or Martok’s ship was immobile while rerouting power, and about to be blasted by a Jem'Haddar or Caradassian ship, the enemy gets blown to smithereens, by an offscreen blast, kinda like the TIE fighters by the Falcon at the end of Star Wars, and when the camera cuts to the unseen ally, it’s a swarm of Ferengi Marauders! A Ferengi DaiMon, maybe Kazago from The Battle (TNG), shows up on the Defiant viewer, telling the crew that the new Grand Nagus Rom has ordered the ships to the Battle of Cardassia, and just as Sisko thanks Kazago and gets ready to turn off the viewer, Kazago adds "Provided we are given 50% of all Dominion property seized at the end of the battle…", to which Sisko good-naturedly agrees. Lolar Windrunner on Monday, July 30, 2001 - 4:56 pm: That battle plan of yours for the Ferengi sounds very cool. I have never liked the way they have portrayed the Ferengi or Klingons on the shows. In the books the Klingons come off a bit better usually, but then books can go a little more in depth on certain things. Unfortunately the books still treat the Ferengi about the same as the shows, greedy little cowards. I agree it would have been better to have the Ferengi, at least in one episode, send a representative to DS9 to deal with the Dominion in a more "ruthless" corporate shark style. LUIGI NOVI on Monday, July 30, 2001 - 10:38 pm: Thank you, Lolar. Tim Lynch also pointed out in his review for The Siege of AR-558 (DS9) Quark's line to Sisko that the Ferengi Alliance would've ended the war a long time ago had it been them, because they would've "negotiated". Category:Episodes Category:Deep Space Nine